Nature's Youth's 'NY' Not Deceptive, But TTAB Still Refuses

Law360, New York (March 20, 2014, 2:33 PM EDT) -- The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board last week overturned an examiner's decision that Nature's Youth Inc.'s trademark for “NY” would imply a connection to New York but nonetheless rejected the registration over the company's refusal to answer questions about the geography issue.

Substantively, the board the rejected the examiner's decision that the “NY” mark for cosmetics and other beauty products would be “geographically deceptively misdescriptive.” Though the initials indicated New York, the board said consumers simply didn't consider the Empire State a sufficiently known source of...